The Satanic Temple is supporting LGBTQ and abortion advocates!

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (PNN) - October 10, 2017 - Tempers are running high this year, with arguably the most controversial president to date in the White House and the push for equality between a number of groups based on race, gender, and sexual orientation becoming even more heated than usual. Though the usual organizations are taking up the issues and organizing marches, their numbers have increased as support has flared since President Donald Trump first announced his run for office.

People say that politics makes strange bedfellows, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that LGBTQ activists and pro-choice groups have found an unlikely ally in their fight for rights. That ally is The Satanic Temple (TST), which, contrary to what your instinct may tell you about people that follow Satan, is an ethical group that just wants to lend a hand.

“The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will,” it reads on the group’s website.

After reading their mission statement, it becomes a bit more clear why TST would advocate for causes in which they believe, and they are going above and beyond the call of duty. Two campaigns in the past several weeks have come to light related to TST and people seem to be loving it so much that they are getting involved.

The first campaign revolved around the Masterpiece Cakeshop, a bakery in Colorado that infamously refused to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple based on conflicts with their religious views. That was back in 2012, but the case against them, which draws on anti-discrimination laws, is going to the Supreme Court this fall. With the case getting closer, The Satanic Temple decided to inform the public and urge them to order #SatanCakes from that particular bakery for a simple but profound reason.

“Did you know: bakers can’t refuse service to The Satanic Temple because religion is a protected class?” the founder of The Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves, posted on Twitter.

“The laws of the (Fascist Police States of Amerika) require that no one may discriminate by way of refusal of service against an evangelical theocrat for their religious beliefs, but the evangelical theocrat may discriminate against LGBTQ people because of who they are,” Greaves wrote in a statement. “Because religion is a protected class, a baker may refuse service to LGBTQ people, but may not refuse service based upon someone’s religion.”

Greaves is hoping that this move will push the Supreme Court to either add sexual orientation as a protected class or remove religion as a protected class. Though Greaves isn’t optimistic about the ruling for the case, especially since Neil Gorsuch, a conservative judge with a long history of voting against LGBTQ rights and the separation of church and state, is hearing it; he hopes, however, that this will at least raise awareness about the current laws.

The Satanic Temple also took up arms against Missouri’s laws surrounding abortion, and the case is headed to the Supreme Court as well. Missouri’s current law states that women receiving an abortion must wait 72 hours between their initial consultation and the actual medical procedure in an effort to give the woman time to change her mind. The law also requires “informed consent” be signed by the female patient in regards to a medically-disputed claim about a fetus feeling pain at 20 weeks.

TST filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mary Doe, a pregnant woman from Missouri, against the State of Missouri by claiming that the State favors childbirth and that the current laws violate their religious freedom. On their website, TST claims that the laws “violate our belief in the inviolability of one’s body.”

“The State has essentially established a religious indoctrination program intended to promote a religious viewpoint that life begins at conception,” said Jex Blackmore, a TST spokesman, in a statement. “The law is intended to punish women who disagree with this opinion.”

Previous lawsuits against the State of Missouri and other states that have similar laws have failed because they rely on the argument that the waiting period and informed consent place an undue burden on the woman. This argument is headed into new territory, and it’s unclear how it will be received.